Fire-hydrant.



R. H. THORNE & F. I. MILLER.

` FIRE HYDRANT.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.I3| IBIB.

3 SHEETS-SMEET I.

1,296,714. Patented Mar. 11,1919.Y

7 Il IVE I l IIIhfI I',| Ik: I Ivi' l `IIIEI, 6

II 3/ M g I a I Franza TOHIVEI'S R. H. THORNE II I. MILLER.

FIRE HYDRANT.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. I3, I9I8. 1,296,714. Patented Mar. 11,1919.'

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

W/ TNES H. H. THORNE al F. I. MILLER.

FIRE HYDRAIITl APPLICATION FILED 4ALIG. 13. I9I8.

Al,296,711.4-i Patented Mar. 11, 1919.

a SHEETS-SHEET 3;.'

STATES PATEN I ion.

' ROBERT HARRY THORNE AND FRANK JAMES ivirnniirt,A or wILLIAMsPon'r,`

v PENNSYLVANIA. r 4 Y FIRE-HYDRANT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

f Patented Mar. 11,1919.

Application filed August 13, 1918. Y Serial No. 249,722.

To all whom t may concern,.- y

.Be it knownthat we, ROBERT H.V THORNE and FRANK J MILLER, citizens of the United States, and residents of ,Williamsport, in the county of Lycoming and State of Pennsyl- 'V vania, have invented certain new and useful 'Improvements 1n Fire-Hydrants, of whlch the 4following'is a specification. l Our invention relates to improvements in -re hydrants, it 'being more particularly in the nature of an improvement in hydrants of the removable seat and l working part type, and it consists Vin the constructions, combinations and arrangements herein described and claimed. j

Aniobject -of our invention is to provide a fire 'hydrant of the` inside cut-o type,

ywherein the main valve, theV main valve seat vand Vall other operating parts may be taken and subsequently to fold the valve back-- wardly thereby giving an unobstructed iow to the water and causing the valve to act as a defiector.

A further object of Vthe invention `is to provide operating mechanism for each of the valves, the arrangement of the mechamsm being such that upon turning the valve stem to raise or open the valve, Vno lateral strain is imposed on the stem tending to Y distort it and throw it out of alinement.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figures 1, 2 and 3 are perspective views illustrating the various operating parts of the hydrant separated, y l

Fig. 4 is `a sectional view ofthe upper portion of the stand pipe or barrel,

Fig. 5 is a detail sectional view of the stand pipe or barrel showing the uniform and unobstructed bore,

Fig. 6 is a Vdetailsectional view showing one of the valves open, and

- ralityof hose nozzles 2 radiating therefrom,

Vvserted mechanism. v j. Mounted on top of the Vstand pipe v1 is a lFig. l7 is a detailcross section on the line 7-'7 ofFig. 4. l j

In carrying out our invention, we provide a stand pipe or barrel lfwhich'ha's a'pluand oneor more steamernozzles 3 arranged j below the hose nozzles. Each of the nozzles, it will be observed more particularly in Fig.

l4, is in the natureV of a bushing which is provided with a vflange 4 on the inner end. The flange 4 in each instance is set in a recess 5 in the bore of the stand pipe; The v purpose of this arrangements to bring the inner end of eachof the nozzles flush with the bore of the stand pipe so thatthere will vbe vno projecting part on the inside to form an obstruction lwhen it is desired to vremove the operating parts. j. Y j

A boss Gfor veach of the recesses', is

built on the adj acent .wall ofthe stand .pipe

and includes a thickened yportion 6av which VAis intended to compensate for the amount of metal taken ofi1 of the stand pipe at the recess 5. There is thereby no sacrifice of the mechanical strength ofthe stand pipeadjacent'to the'various nozzles, by` reason 'of the provision of the recesseson theins'ide, since these recesses are compensatedy for as just explained, bythe added thickness ofmetal 6iL above eachof the bosses 6. A

flange 7 surrounds the upper edge of the stand pipe 1, and an annular recess 8v is formed on the inside to receive and Vpartly act as a support for portions of thev 1npacking plate 9 which is secured/in place on the flange 7 by bolts 10. Ag'thrust plate 11 is secured'beneath the packing'plate 9, and thethrustplaterestsin the annularre- "cessf 8. when the parts are assembled as shown' in Fig. 4.

and extends into the space beneath the` thrust plate 11. The stem 12 has a `coll-ar 'l A stem 12 passes througha packing gland l V13 whichis screwed in the packing plate 9,

The lower end ofthe stem'v1'2 Vis threaded at 16 and carries a centering mit 1.7.-up0nwhich the yoke 18 is supportgg; Y. Y

The yoke 18 is inthe nature `of VUfshaped member,` the arms of which--straddle alug vtion :of the vvalve itself, which will be vexplained later. v p i A pin 21 passes through the lug 19, the

varms of the yoke 18, and through a lslot 22 direction, the centering nut 17 is elevated.V

ineach of the pair of arms of a toggle link The toggle link .23'l is piv'oted at 24 in a; suitable support 25 of an extension vpost 2.6jwhich is pendent Von the thrust -iplate 11. The centering nut 17 is pinted at both ends andthe bridge portion of the yoke 18l has ,outwardly .sloping surfaces 18a which are'.for1nedata greater angle than are the corresponding surfaces of the sharpened portions of the centering nut y17.

The construction Ij ust ,described provides `a Vknife edge upon which the yoke `18 is supported, and this edgegenables the .necesl'sary amount'of rocking motion that the yoke .18 .has with .respect to the'centering nut1-7 with .a minimum amount: of friction. The stem 12 has an operating nut-,27 at the .top

and on .the end which is exposed beyond the cap 28 which coversthe packing plate V9 as shown. On turning the nut27 .in the proper 'The yoke v18 .is carried therewith until the pin 21 `reaches the :extremity of the slot 22 in the arms of the toggle link 23. During `th'isportion of the initial movement in open- Yee ' it toward the nozzle.

ing the valve 20, the valve k20 Vis `caused to slide vertically across the nozzle 2. `This initial sliding movement of the valve .forms a slight opening at .rst through which the water may pass and relieve the load on the valve.V

'IAS the valve opens farther, more water V,will `pass out and when the pin 21 reaches the extremity of the slot 22, the end fof the vertical sliding movement of the'valve 20 comes to fan end. 'Continued turning ofthe stem 12 causes the yoke 18 Vto turn on the knifeedge fof the centering nut 17 until the yoke 18 and thetoggle link .23 finally assume the positionvindicated in Fig. 6 when the valve 20 is fully opened. Here it will .be observed that the valve .2O assumes a position-at an angle with respectto the :nozzle 2. This angled Yposition 'of the valve '2O provides a dellector for the water which directs -fO-ne of the principal .features of the .in

V-vention and relating more directly to the mechanism just described, y'cor-rsists in the cooperative -arrangement 'of the valve fopen- -parts ,whereby the opening of the valve is achieved withoutimposing .lateral-strains :onthe valve .stem `.12; T he Vvalve stem 12 always'y remains. .in the. truev perpendicular "erally knewn.

practice that no lateral strains are imposed Vaon -the'v'alve stem and consequently-there is ne 'wear on the collar 14C nor on the packing in the gland 13 to cause -a leakage of the water past these portions into the cap 28.

The same mode of operation and the same construction of the parts rela-te 'tothe valve of the steamerynozzle 3.- The valve 20 of the steamer nozzle is, however, slightly different in construction in thaty it isV provided with `a depression 29, `in, which the end Aof the togglelink23 operates. The re-V cess inthe valve 20 is used principally where the stand `pipe 1 is of such a small diameter i' lof bore that a toggle link 28'ofsuliic1ent length cannotjbe employed tovobtain the proper results.l VBy yproviding the c depression 29 the end ofthe 'toggle link may be made to swing beyond the valve as clearly shown-:in Fig. 4, and thus the Vcoacting mechanism may be properly mounted to obtainthe proper leverage and clearance necessary. i

In other circumstances where it is found 5 that the valve 20 more particularly` in connection vwith the steamer nozzle 3,, does not `have sufficient room to swing, a longer'toglgle link 23amay be employed and connected to a lug 30 on the opposite sidevof lthe. lower end of theeXtension post 26 as indicated Vin dotted lines inrFig. V4t. It is to bel observed that the wedging mechanism of the valve 2O cannot swing beyond the dead centers in either direction. Consequently, the parts are prevented from locking and becoming inoperative. v

Reaching from the top to the' bottom of fthefhydrantis a main valve vrod 31 to the lower end of which ,a valve'32 lis secured.V The valve 32 --operates against a seat in a yeager 33. The cage has threadsxand is arg ranged'to be screwed in place Yin alring v34 which is clamped between the flanged end of `the `stand pipe `1 `and the' hydrant bottom. Y

" Attention is directedmo-re particularly to Fig. 5 wherein is shown ,the construction of the standzpipe vor .barrel l., whereby the -acfcomplishment of some of the most important features of vthe iI-iventionV is made possible. 1 As explained before, the `nozzles 2 and 3 are mounted in ,place in the recesses 5 so that the .inner ends of the nozzles come flush with the .bore of the :standpipe and de not offer obstruction as is universally the case .in hydrant constructions they are` now gen# The fainmlarY recess 8 at the top provides a rest for the thru-st `plate .1.1 without thickening the stand pipe at theftop to provide. the necessary support for'the thrust plate, and, thus again contributing f towardroneof the objectsof-the invention.

The vbore `of the stand pipe 1 isl substan-V tially uniform` from thebottomtofthe 4Vtep.

Tlhis bore is free frcm obstructions and .thereyso (fore the removal of the valve mechanism at Vthe bottom is enabled.

By screwing the various yokes l8up to the position indicatedin Fig. 6 so that the vari- Ivous valvesQO are'folded. against-the eXtension post 26, as shown in Fig. l, the mecha- .nismvpendent Vfrointhe packing plate 9 may be taken outas a unit by simply removing thebolts 10 which normally hold the packing plate in placeon the stand pipe. Should any of the operating parts become Worn or Vout of alinement for any-reason, the renioyal Y of the packing plate 9 enables the inspection of the entire Working mechanism still avc-iding the necessityof digging up `the hydrant. This' is'particularly true in respect to the main valve at the bottom.: Here the con-V struction is such that by simply turning on the main valve frod 31V, and unscrevving it, the entire valve seat 33, together with the valve and drip, maybe taken out. Usually the valve and'drip, are fixed in place at the 4bottom and ina position so inaccessible that the ends of the arms of?` the toggle link 23 bear against the valve 20 and Wedge it tightly against the seat. Inl the closing movement just referred to, the lower-sharpenedv portion of the centering nut 17 engages a Wedge shaped seat vvhich'is similar to the seat 18a. This second seat is Wellindicated in'Fig. 4, Vfrom vvhich'it Will be readilyunderstood that it is necessary for the centering nut-17 to vbear down on the yoke 18 in order to accomplish the closing of the valve 20 kin the manner just explained.

While the construction and arrangement of the lire hydrant as herein described and illustrated, is that of a generally preferred form, obviously modifications :and changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the claims.

We claim 1. In a fire hydrant, a stand pipe having a recess depressed in the Wall of the bore, a thickened portionson the outside compensating for the recess and providing an even thickness of Wall, said thickened portion having a nozzle opening, and a nozzle in said opening, having aflange forming a valve seat, occupying said recess, said valve seat being flush with the Wall of the bore and enabling the maintenance of an unre` stricted passage through the stand pipe.`

2. In a fire hydrant, a stand vpipe ,having a recess depressed in the Wall of the bore, a valve and valve operating mechanism supported in the bore, a boss formed on the ou-tl Plpe .side of the .stand pipe adjacent tothe recess ito Vcompensate therefor and provide `a uniform thickness of Wall, and a nozzleprojecting through the boss, having a iange occupying said recess and forming aseat 'for the valve, said valve seat being flush Withgthe Y surface of the bo-re, providing an ,-unre' stricted passageway in the stand-pipe, and enabling the removal of the valve and its operating parts through the top of the stand 3. In a ire'hydrant, a'stand pipe having a pluralityVA of nozzles flush on the' inside .vith the bore, a packing plate secured to the stand pipe and forming a closure for the bore,.valves and valve operating mechanism cooperating with the nozzles, and a4 combinedthrust plate and extension post 'supported on the packing plate and providing a trigid mounting for the valve operating mechanism. 3

.4. In a lire hydrant, astand pipe having nozzles provided With flanges forming lvalve seats occupying positionslush With the surface of the bore ef the stand pipe, a packing a closure for the bore, a thrust plateand extension'post pendent from thepacking plate,'and valves carried by said extension post and being foldable thereagainst for the4 removal 'of vthe packing plate and its` carried parts.

ing plate secured tothe stand pipe and form- 5. In a lire hydrant, a stand pipe 'having i a nozzle formed Withy a Hange, providing a valve seat, said valve seat being depressed in the surface of the boretol leave an unobstructed passage, a packing plate secured Yon the stand pipev and forming aclosure for the bore, a` thrust plate and extension post pendent from 'the packingplate, said thrust plate having a recess, a valve stem passing through the packing. ,plate and thrust plate A and having a collar occupying said recess, a packing gland for the stem, a threaded p0rtion on the lovver end of the stem, a valve coacting with the valve seat, and means in connection With said valve and the extension post, operated by the valve stem tosecure an initialr sliding movement lof the valve across the valve seat to release the Water pressure on the valve, and a subsequent folding movement of the valve to bring it into a deflecting position.

6. In a fire hydrant, a stand pipe having a nozzle formed with a ange, providing aV valve seat, said valve seat being depressed in the surface of the bore to leave an unobstructed passage, a packing plate secured on the stand pipe and forming a closure for the bore, a thrust plate and extension post pendent from the packing plate, said thrust plate having a recess, a valve stem passing through the packing plate and thrust plate and having a collar occupying said recess, a packing gland for the stem, a threaded portion on the lower end of the stem, a valve coacting With the valve seat, a toggle link pivoted to the extension post and having a 'slot andv pin connection With the valve, a yoke joined to the pin connection and having abridge With a Wedge surface, and

Ameans carried by the threaded end of the stem including ak centering nutY having a knife edge engaging the Wedge surface of Y said bridge.

7. In are hydrant, a valve stem having a threaded end, means providing a mounting for said stem, enabling the rotation thereof and preventing longitudinal movement, a

Y Yvalvearranged to be actuated by said stem,

a pivoted toggle link mounting for said valve, and means carried by saidvalve stem and in' connection with said valve, enabling the Iopening and folding back of said valve Without imposing lateral strain on said 'valve stem.

8. Ina 'fire hydrant, a valve stem having Y athreaded end, means providing a mounting for Vsaid stem, enabling the rotation thereof and preventing Vlongitudinal movement, a

Y valve arranged to be actuated by saidstem, :a pivotedvtoggle'link'mounting for 'saidV valve, means movable with Vthe access of the valve stem upon turning thereof, and means supported on said valve stem carried means, in connection With'the valve and said toggle YYlink, yto secure a -swinging :motion of said toggle link and said valve Without imposing lateral strain on the valve stem.

9. In a ire hydrant, ,a rotatable valve stem having a threaded end, a nozzle having a valve seat, fa valve resting on said seat, a pivoted toggle link having arms bearing said valve vagainst the seat, Ythe ends of said arms having slots, ar lug on the valve Alocated betvveen said arms, -a pin-'passing through the lug'and said slots, a yoke having'arms extending between said lugV and the arms of said toggle link, a bridge included in saidV ,1.

yoke having a Wedge shaped surface and a hole forthe passage of said valve stem, and a centering nut having a knife edge engaging said We'dgeshaped surface. A Y Y l0. In a fire hydrant, the combination Vo a valve seat, a valve 'resting on said seat, and coper'ating mechanism arranged to initially slide'the valve'across said seat'forming a small opening'for the relief yof the Water pressure on the valve, Vand subsequently to hold` the valve back intoV a Water deflecting position.

v 11'. A lire-hydrant comprising a stand pipe having an internally threaded ring clamped in place at the bottom, anda kbore of Ya uni'- lform and unrestricted diameter from l'said ring to the top, a plurality of recesses being formed inthe Wall of the bore Vnear the top,

bosses formed on Athe outside of the stand pipe to compensate vfor said recesses and pre#V serve a uniform thickness of lthe stand pipe,

nozzles projecting through Vsaid .bosses in` clu'ding flanges forming valve seats occupying said recesses, said valve seats being flush With the bore of the stand pipe, a thrust plate nforming a kclosure for 'the bore,valves Copies 'of this patent may 10e/obtained for five 'cents each, by addressing the 'Comniissionerbf Patents,

' Washington, D. C. y 

